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The Initial Developments
Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson, engineers at MIT LINCOLN LAB, began their initial developments and experiments on the 18-bit computer that replaced bulky vacuum tubes with newer and more developed transistors. After creating their first business plan, they were advised to focus their company from just computers to all equipment in general. The developers wanted to keep their costs relatively low, so they started a shop in an old wool mill in Maynard, Massachusetts. -
Funding
Ken, Harlan, and Ken’s brother stan noticed that people in MIT Labs were more attracted to using less powerful TX-0 computers. The three engineers took action in an attempt to try and open a computer company with the intentions of building a faster, smaller, and more powerful interactive computers. The first problem they would run in to was the difficulty in finding investors to help fund the project. -
Digital Laboratory Module
The first product that DEC developed was called the Digital Laboratory Module. DEC began testing its Module on other computers from a variety of companies. Their first handful of products were mainly focused on modules that were mounted to circuit boards. -
The PDP
By the 1950, DEC sold over $94,000 worth of its first products. By 1960, investors were reluctant to invest in computers due to the lack of success then, so they renamed it to a “programmable data processor” (PDP) instead. It sold over $120,000 worth of equipment just that year. With that, DEC decided to start making newer developments of the module. They developed the PDP-4, which was a slower and less complicated module that sold for $65,000. -
PDP-8
DEC released the PDP-8 in 1965. This PDP was considered the first successful commercial minicomputer. It was so successful due to the cost of only $18,500 and had been sold to about 50,000 customers. -
PDP-11
DEC revamped its PDP minicomputer and released the PDP-11. The new development brought new upgraded features and was more simple than the past releases. By the 1990s, over 600,000 were sold, making it their most popular developments, and one of the most popular minicomputers ever. -
Fortune 500
This year DEC became recognized as a Fortune 500 company. -
The VAX
DEC launched the Virtual Address eXtension, VAX, which was a high-end minicomputer. It was a 32-bit minicomputer that provided customers with a more affordable, powerful and smaller than most computers compared to the technology offered at the time. The new computer offered a wide-spread variety of different computer resources that made the computer more simplistic, affordable, and very efficient. -
VAX 8600
DEC continuously launched new models of the VAX. In 1984, the VAX 8600 was released and became a best-seller almost instantly. -
Making Big Money Moves
DEC had generated almost over $11 billion in equipment sales and had well over 12,000 employees. At the time, DEC was one of the biggest leaders in computer software. It was declared the second-largest computer company behind the well renowned IBM. -
The Fall
The company reported its first-quarter losses and first annual losses in 1990 and 1991. -
The Retire
Founder Ken Olsen retires. -
Alpha AXP
DEC releases the Alpha AXP. This computer was described as a 64-bit microprocessor. The computer was developed to remedy the overly complicated circuit designs of the VAX computer. With the extra added 64-bit microprocessor, the VAX computer now had quicker processing times. -
AltaVista
AltaVista was launched. This was one of the first-ever search engines for the internet and was released by DEC. The first day it was launched it received over 300,000 visits. Within two years, it received 80 million visits every day. In 2003, AltaVista was sold to Yahoo, and by 2013 it was gone. -
Intel Take Over
Intel bought DEC’s microprocessor plant in Hudson while the company started to first diminish. They sold it to Intel for $1.5 billion, however, this was still far from helpful when it came to saving the company. -
COMPAQ
Compaq buys DEC for $9.6 billion. After purchasing the company, Compaq had no business with DEC overseas company, and eventually, Compaq ceased to exist as well. -
HP Acquires Compaq
Hewlett-Packard, or more well known as HP, acquired Compaq.
